Junior forward Ryanne Lewis attempts to score a goal during Friday evening’s match against Memphis at Wescott Field. SMU [won/lost] [X-X]. The Women’s soccer team will play East Carolina on Sunday, their last home game of the season. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)

The SMU women’s soccer team defeated the Marshall Thundering Herd 2-1 on Friday night at Westcott Field. The Mustangs improved their overall record to 8-5-1 and C-USA record to 5-1-1, while the Thundering Herd dropped to an overall record of 3-9-3 and a C-USA record of 1-4-2.

The Mustangs tallied up the first goal of the match with junior forward Kenzie Scovill in the 19th minute. The Herd’s defense failed to clear the ball on the box, due to a deflection off a Marshall defender.

Scovill did not hesitate to take advantage on the error and quickly fired it into the lower left corner of the goal, past Marshall’s goalkeeper Lindsey Kerns. The Mustangs were able to outshoot the Thundering Herd 7-4 in the first half.

The Thundering Herd responded early in the second half. Marshall’s forward Megan Tabler tied the match 1-1, with her first goal of the season.

“I think we came out low and didn’t keep ball possession,” Courtney Smith, sophomore defender, said. “There were probably five opportunities where we could stop the play and just didn’t get a tackle in or anything like that.”

With only 10 minutes left in the second half, the Mustangs received a corner kick that helped late in the match. Smith was in charge of taking the right corner kick. Her left-footed kick bent enough to get past Kerns and become a goal. Smith earned her second game-winning goal of the season.

The Mustangs then knew that they had to hold the defense down for the remaining nine minutes in the match. They completed the task along with outshooting Marshall 16-7 at the end of the match.

“I thought Kenzie worked her butt off on the top,” Smith said. “Katherine and Kaitlyn were strong defensively and communicated well on the back to keep us all in line.” The sophomore gave credit to the player who she thought played the key role in the defeating Marshall.

When asked about her second game-winning goal of the season, Smith mentioned that she felt excited to be the game-winning player of the match. “I want to get another one now,” she said.

The Mustangs will stay at home for the weekend, as they host East Carolina on senior day Sunday afternoon. The kickoff is set for 2 p.m. at Westcott Field; the Mustangs will host this match as the final home game of the season.